Method and system for instructional video segments in conjunction with musical representation

ABSTRACT

Techniques to segment videos for instructions in conjunction with an exemplary musical representation are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a tag file is created to include a link to a source video and a plurality of tags. At least one of the tags is defined to correspond to a video portion of the source video to be associated with one or more notes in a music representation (e.g., music notes in a music score). The video portion is played back to show how the one or more notes are played whenever an area containing the one or more notes in the music representation is activated. The tag file is separate from the source video and video data representing the source video is never modified while video portions in the source video are segmented via the tag file to define pieces of the music representation, each containing one or more notes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to the area of man machine interface,and more particularly related to method and system for segmenting videoswithout interfering the video files, where the segmented videos may beshared with another user or among a circle of contacts over a datanetwork (e.g., the Internet). Depending on implementation, a segmentedvideo may include a list of tags or subtags, each corresponding to adefined portion or a segment of the video, where the tags or subtags arearranged in an order, not necessarily in time sequence, but preferred byan author, one or more of the tags may be used for an intended purpose(e.g., based on subscription, payment, advertisement or a type ofconsent).

Description of the Related Art

The Internet is a data communication network of interconnected computersand computer networks around the world and has been rapidly evolving tothe point where it combines elements of telecommunications, computing,broadcasting, publishing, commerce, and information services into arevolutionary new business infrastructure. The economy on the Internetis growing in every aspect of life, from buying small items (e.g.,stationary) to big items (e.g., vehicles and houses) to trading stocksand ordering services, all via the Internet.

The Internet is being relied upon as a medium for variouscommunications, including audio, video, email and fax. Humancommunications may be conducted synchronously or asynchronously.Synchronous communication requires that both parties must be present atthe time of the communication while asynchronous communication does nothave such a requirement. For example, telephone is one type ofsynchronous communication while email is one type of asynchronouscommunication.

Asynchronous communication, including various discussion boards,blogging, and text messaging over the Internet, is becoming popular asit does not require both parties to be present when the communicationtakes place. Most of these asynchronous communication tools are meant toconvey a subject or an idea in an electronic message. For example, aspart of the asynchronous communication, electronic instructions providedby a business over the Internet can be accessed by a user whenever theuser has time.

Such communication without two parties being present, however, requiresclear and non-confusing expressions, otherwise a late-joined party wouldhave no immediate way to clarify possible misunderstanding. In thedomain of asynchronous communications, messages including images/videowith audio are often used to illustrate a point or an idea. For example,www.youtube.com provides many teaching materials (e.g., installationguides and lessons) in video and images. Unless it is a simple procedureinvolving few parts, a video-based instruction would not help much as anovice user sometimes cannot even find a particular part in the video tofollow along the instructions. Likewise, unless it is a simple subject,a video-based lecture would not make all students understand immediatelywithout giving a student a time to review a particular section orproviding additional teaching materials. Thus there is a great need fornew ways to convey an idea in video.

To assist a viewer who may not have the patience to watch a video in itsentirety, many video players are designed to provide a timeline to allowa viewer to jump to a specific section of the video. However, it is noteasy to get to such a specific section by sliding a timer in thetimeline, especially when the video is a data stream being streamed froma website (e.g., YouTube). Thus there is another need for ways to addrelevant tags to certain sections of a video so that a viewer can jumpto a relevant section of the view by selecting a tag.

A publisher of a video nevertheless wishes a viewer to view a publishedvideo in its entirety. Should a video be segmented by respective tags,some intended information in the video may be overlooked. Accordingly,there is another need for a publisher to control which part of a videomust be viewed or parts of the video shall be viewed in a specificorder.

There are many other needs that will become apparent upon examining thefollowing detailed description of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of thepresent invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments.Simplifications or omissions may be made to avoid obscuring the purposeof the section. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended tolimit the scope of the present invention.

In general, the present invention is related to segmenting a video usingtags without interfering with video data thereof. According to oneaspect of the present invention, each tag is created to define a portionof the video, wherein the tags can be modified, edited, looped,reordered or restored to a create an impression other than that if thevideo was played back sequentially. The tags are so structured in atable included in a tagging file that can be shared or publishedelectronically or modified or updated by others.

According to another aspect of the present invention, one of the tags inthe table may be made or a new tag may be inserted into the table as aconditional tag. The conditional tag requires an interaction from theuser to clarify one or more conditions imposed on the conditional tagbefore subsequent tags can be activated. An example of the condition mayinclude, but not be limited to, a password, a payment, a time to watch aseparate video or visit a website, or a task to be finished by a user.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, the tags arenot necessarily created for one source video. A table of tags may becreated based on several source videos. For example, a group of firsttags are related to a first source video and a group of second tags arerelated to a second source video, thus the tag table provides amechanism to seamlessly concatenate two or more source videos while aviewer perceives it as if a single video source is being viewed.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, the tags aremade searchable within a table or among a plurality of tables. Tofacilitate a viewer to look for videos related to an interested subject,labels for the tags or key words therefor are indexed. A search based ona keyword may lead to a generated table including all relevant tags toallow the viewer to view selectively any of the tags, where the tagsdefining corresponding video portions may be from one source video orseveral source videos.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, whenever atable of tags is updated, an updated version thereof of a link theretois deposited or published in a repository (e.g., a whitewall on a socialnetwork). As different users have modified the table over time,different versions are created and listed in an order and may be sortedaccording to when the versions were created, or names of those who havemodified the booklet, lengths of the comments and etc.

The present invention may be implemented in software or in a combinationof software and hardware, and practiced as a system, a process, or amethod. According to one embodiment, the present invention is a methodfor creating a published video, the method comprises: loading a sourcevideo from a location where the source video is located; displaying thesource video on a display of a computing device being used by a user;creating a plurality of tags in a table, each of the tags correspondingto a time duration to define a video portion of the source video to beassociated with the each of the tags; allowing the user to reorder thetags in the table to impress a viewer in a way different from animpression of the source video sequentially played back, wherein each ofthe tags is activated by the viewer to view a corresponding videoportion; and creating the published video by saving a file including thetable of tags and a link to the source video. In one embodiment, a linkto the file can be shared electronically via email, an electronicmessage, published in a webpage or other electronic means.

According to another embodiment, the present invention is a method forcreating a published video, the method comprises loading a source videofrom a location where the source video is located; displaying the sourcevideo on a display of a computing device being used by a user; creatinga plurality of tags in a table, each of the tags corresponding to a timeduration to define a video portion of the source video to be associatedwith the each of the tags; allowing the user to reorder the tags in thetable to impress a viewer in a way different from an impression of thesource video when sequentially played back, wherein each of the tags isactivated out of order by the viewer to view a corresponding videoportion; and creating the published video by saving a file including thetable of tags and a link to the source video. The published videoincludes a source video and the file, where the source video stays whereit is and the file, when loaded, locates the source video so that aviewer can see a video in an order arranged by the user (or the author).Depending on implementation, the tags in table may be implemented with aprogress bar thereon, superimposed on a graph or overlaid next to agraph. One of the tags may be conditional and turned off, skipped,removed, modified, updated, deactivated or become unconditional.

According to yet another embodiment, the present invention is a systemfor creating a published video, the system comprises a server configuredto manage at least an account for a user, the account including aprofile of the user and a file for a published video, wherein the fileis created by the user with operations of: loading a source video from alocation where the source video is located; displaying the source videoon a display of a computing device being used by the user; creating aplurality of tags in a table, each of the tags corresponding to a timeduration to define a video portion of the source video to be associatedwith the each of the tags; allowing the user to reorder the tags in thetable to impress a viewer in a way different from an impression of thesource video when sequentially played back, wherein each of the tags isactivated out of order by the viewer to view a corresponding videoportion; and creating the published video by saving the file includingthe table of tags and a link to the source video.

One of the objects, features, and advantages of the present invention isto provide an interactive interface for a user to view or listen to arelevant portion of a multimedia presentation.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon examining the following detailed description of anembodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1A shows a basic system configuration in which the presentinvention may be practiced in accordance with one embodiment thereof;

FIG. 1B illustrates an internal functional block diagram of a computingdevice that may be used in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary interface of an authoring tool according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is an sample display showing that a piano lesson video is beingsegmented or tagged;

FIG. 2C shows an example of a table having a tag with a subtag that hasits own subtag, hence a subsubtag for the tag;

FIG. 2D shows underlying relationships of the respective tags in a tablewith corresponding segments in a video or videos;

FIG. 2E shows that a table has the same tags but reordered, a sequentialplayback per the table would create different impression on the viewersthan the original table;

FIG. 2F shows a list of tags, one of which is shown differently fromothers, in one embodiment, the special tag is grayed in appearance;

FIG. 3A shows a flowchart or process of creating a tagging file or apublished video according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B shows a portion of an exemplary tagging file;

FIG. 3C shows a flowchart or process of playing back a published videoaccording to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3D shows some examples of the tags that may be further animated,graphed or overlaid on a message, a graph or a symbol;

FIG. 3E illustrates how a tag may be published alone;

FIG. 3F shows an exemplary generated table based on a search string“cooking AND Asian”;

FIG. 3G shows a flowchart or process of generating a table based on asearch string from a user;

FIG. 4A shows a display including a window to show a published video anda table in which tags are graphically organized and overlaid on a musicscore to track a playing progress;

FIG. 4B shows a guitar video in which the guitar has six strings, adisplay includes a window to show the published guitar video and a tablein which tags are graphically organized and overlaid with a graph;

FIG. 4C shows an exemplary table at creation, a shuffled table and anunshuffled (restored) table;

FIG. 4D shows a concept of nonlinear mapping of video advancement andsigns or notes; and

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a server machine or server inwhich a server module resides in a memory space and is executable by oneor more processors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The detailed description of the present invention is presented largelyin terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, or othersymbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble theoperations of data processing devices. These descriptions andrepresentations are typically used by those skilled in the art to mosteffectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in theart. Numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide athorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will becomeobvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well knownmethods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been describedin detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the presentinvention.

Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of theinvention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutuallyexclusive of other embodiments.

The present invention pertains to a platform, a service, and anapplication each of which is designed to allow a user to segment a videowithout interfering the video data thereof, where the video may bealready in existence (e.g., streamed over the Internet) or created bythe user him/herself. As used herein, any pronoun references to gender(e.g., he, him, she, her, etc.) are meant to be gender-neutral. Unlessotherwise explicitly stated, the use of the pronoun “he”, “his” or “him”hereinafter is only for administrative clarity and convenience.Additionally, any use of the singular or to the plural shall also beconstrued to refer to the plural or to the singular, respectively, aswarranted by the context.

The invention is related to multimedia presentations such as video oraudio presentations, but will be described herein mainly based onvideos. Those skilled in the art shall understand that many embodimentsdescribed herein are equally applicable when a video is replaced by anaudio. Additionally as used herein, a source or source video means thata video streaming or file that can be played back in its original formor sequence in an application (e.g., a video player). A published videomeans that the video can be played back out with tags allowing a viewerto view any part of the video without having to follow the original formor sequence. One of the benefits, advantages and objectives in thepresent invention is that the data in a video streaming or file is notaltered or interfered when the video is segmented.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to likeparts throughout the several views. FIG. 1A shows a basic systemconfiguration 100 in which the present invention may be practiced inaccordance with one embodiment thereof. FIG. 1A shows that there arethree representative computing devices 102, 104 and 106, where thedevice 102 or 106 is meant to be a mobile device (e.g., a wearabledevice, a smart phone, a tablet or a laptop) while the device 104 ismeant to represent a stationary device (e.g., a desktop computer). Eachof the devices 102, 104 and 106 is coupled to a data network 108, anexample of the network 108 may be, but not limited to, the Internet, theIntranet, or a wireless and/or wired network.

In one embodiment, one of the devices 102. 104 and 106 is used tosegment a video provided by a source 109 that is also coupled to thenetwork 108. An example of the source 109 may include, but not belimited to, a website (e.g., www.youtube.com) on the Internet, a videoserver or a data source. As the name suggests, the source 109 isprovided to host at least a video file for others to access. In oneexample, the source 109 is provided to supply various videos that mayinclude, but be limited to, movies, lessons, installation guides,advertisements and various video footages. Each of the videos isidentified or located by a link (e.g., universal resource locator orURL).

A server 110 is hosted by a service provider offering tools for a userto segment a video from the source 109. Depending on implantation, theservice provider may offer an authoring tool or an application to allowa user to segment a video. As will be further described below, theserver 110 is provided to store a file per the video under a useraccount so that a published video can be accessed in a way preferred bya viewer via a selected tag or in a sequence organized by the user(author) via a series of tags. It should be noted that the file isstored in one place and the video (i.e., source video) stays where it isoriginally located. In other words, the video data of the source videois never interfered with when creating the published video.

According to one embodiment, the service provider maintains a pluralityof accounts, each account includes a profile of a user and a list offiles created by the user, where each file or more than one file arecreated per a video. According to one embodiment, a file includes a linkto the video and a set of descriptors. The link dictates where the videoshall be loaded from. Each of the descriptors describes a label or a tagfor a segment, for example, where the segment starts and ends, orspecial features of the tag (unconditional or conditional accessible).The file is interchangeably referred herein as a tagging file or amapping file. As will be further described below, all the tags createdby a user can be structured in a linear list or in hierarchy. It shouldbe noted that a published video is so created when a correspondingtagging file is created therefor.

In operation, when a viewer desires to access a published video, a linkin the tagging file is provided to locate and load in the video. Underthe guidance of the tags, the video can be accessed starting a portiontherein via a tag or in a specific order specified by the tags, wherethe specific order is not necessarily sequential in time. For example, apublished video may be started at timeline of 20:30 for 9 minutes,followed at timeline of 10:19 for 4.75 minutes and then repeated twiceat timeline of 41:24 for 3.5 minutes. Regardless how the published videois played back, the data in the original video stream or file is notaltered. In other words, the video provided at the source 109 remainsthe same and the data thereof is untouched or not interfered.

The published video may be shared via the network 108 with a viewer witha playback device. Such a playback device may be a computing device. Anexample of the computing device is a desktop computer or a portabledevice (e.g., smartphone or tablet). According to one embodiment, theplayback device includes a touch-screen display, as most of the mobiledevices do. Although other man-machine interfaces are possible, atouch-screen display provides the convenience for a user to activate atag for a defined portion in a video. Similarly, such a playback devicecan also be used to edit a table of tags (e.g., creating new tags,delete/modify existing tags and/or their specific features if needed),and save the tags into his own account on the server 110 as if the userhas created a published video on his own, and publish it on the Internetor share it with his contacts.

As described above, the server 110 is provided to administrate anauthoring tool to allow its users to create a published video whilemaintaining user accounts. In one embodiment, the server 110 isimplemented to analyze the context of the video, the created table oftags in accordance with the profile of the user to extract somekeywords. At a predefined time, one or more corresponding advertisementsare embedded into the table, causing a viewer to activate a tag thatbrings up an advertisement for the viewer to see.

In one example, a user enjoys a video footage related to cooking but isnot satisfied with the way the cooking procedure is being presented. Theuser creates a table of tags, each of the tags shows a portion of thevideo footage. With all the tags, the video footage can be played backout of its original sequence or in a way preferred by the user. Once thetagging file is saved, the sever 110 is configured to determine from thefile that a cooking related advertisement may be appropriate for thepublished footage. In one embodiment, the table is modified to beinserted with a special tag. After the video footage is shared with oraccessed by a viewer, the video footage is played back with the modifiedtable. When the special tag is activated, a corresponding advertisementvideo is played back, or a browser is launched with necessaryinformation automatically filled to bring the viewer right onto aproduct or service being featured in the advertisement.

In view of advertising through a video stream such as those commonlyseen on Youtube, those skilled in the art may appreciate that theadvertisement delivery using a table of tags is much more efficient inthe present invention because an advertisement is made to be linked to aspecial tag, where the advertisement may be updated by a serviceprovider anytime. Further one or more tags for a specific video or theirorders or positions may be auctioned among those that want to put outtheir advertisements at a specific time or date. Operationally, one ormore, and various advertisements can be delivered through special tagswithout interfering with the video data.

In one example of an audio presentation, a public company is required torelease a quarterly earnings report, which is generally conducted inlive and broadcast in audio to shareholders and analysts. Such a releaseis also made available online for others to access whenever they want.One embodiment of the present invention can be advantageously used totag a recording of the release by adding various tags, each tagcorresponding to a subject of interest. For example, one tag points tothe financial numbers (e.g., revenue, costs and profits or loss),another tag points to major events happened in the quarter, and yetanother tag points to the management outlook of the following quarter orthe remaining of the fiscal year. As a result, a shareholder or ananalyst may still obtain the important parts of the quarterly earningsreport by activating relevant tags for the corresponding audio portionswithout having to listening to the release in entirety.

Referring now to FIG. 1B, it illustrates an internal functional blockdiagram 120 of a computing device that may be used in FIG. 1A. Thecomputing device includes a microprocessor or microcontroller 122, amemory space 124 in which there is an application module 126, an inputinterface, a screen driver 130 to drive a display screen 132 and anetwork interface. The application module 126 is a software versionrepresenting one embodiment of the present invention, and downloadableover a network from a library (e.g., Apple Store) or a designated server(e.g., the server 110 of FIG. 1A).

The input interface 128 includes one or more input mechanisms. A usermay use an input mechanism to interact with the device 120 by entering acommand to the microcontroller 122. Examples of the input mechanismsinclude a microphone or mic to receive an audio command and a keyboard(e.g., a displayed soft keyboard) or a touch screen to receive acommand. Another example of an input mechanism is a camera provided tocapture a photo or video, where the data for the photo or video isstored in the device for immediate or subsequent use with theapplication module 126. The driver 130, coupled to the microcontroller122, is provided to take instructions therefrom to drive the displayscreen 132. In one embodiment, the driver 130 is caused to drive thedisplay screen 132 to display a photo or a video. The network interface134 is provided to allow the device 120 to communicate with otherdevices via a designated medium (e.g., a data network).

According to one implementation, the application module 126 is loaded inthe memory 124 and executed by the controller 122 for a user to create apublished video. As will be further described below, the published videois created under the execution of the application module 126, andprogressed with inputs/tags from the user via the input mechanism 128.Once finished, a tagging file is created for the video, hence apublished video. The application module 126 is configured to allow theuser to share the published video on a designated website (e.g., awhitewall on www.facebook.com) or a designated user. In one embodiment,a presentation in a markup language represents the published video isshared. When the presentation is accessed by a viewer, the presentationis loaded in a browser that is caused to retrieve the video and thetagging file to playback the published video.

In a similar fashion, the device 120 may be used to receive a publishedvideo from an original author or another user via the network interface134. According to one embodiment, a published video being viewed may beenhanced or updated by modifying existing tags (rewording existing tags,deleting or adding additional tags). An updated tagging file is createdand may be saved or shared. Again the published video can be shared withothers via the network interface 134.

Referring now to FIG. 2A, it shows an exemplary interface 200 of anauthoring tool according to one embodiment of the present invention.Depending on implementation, the interface 200 may be generated from anapplication module or implemented in a programming language (e.g., JAVA,C++, Javascript) and presented in a browser. The interface or display200 is an example from which tags or a table may be created, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention. The display 200 shows anentry 202 designed to allow a user or an author to input a link to avideo source. If the video is locally stored, the author can guide theentry 202 to where the video is stored locally (e.g., a memory space ora folder). If the video is remotely stored, a URL of the video can bepasted into the entry 202. For example, the video is available onwww.youtube.com, the URL of the video at www.youtube.com can be copiedand pasted onto the entry 202. Once the video is located and streamedin, the video can be played back in the window 204 of the interface 200.In a perspective, the display 200 is also a playback interface or partof a video playback module.

When creating a tag, the display 200 is designed to allow an author tomake a starting time 206 of the tag. Although not specially shown inFIG. 2A, the display 200 is designed to allow the author to specify theending time for the tag. In other words, the display 200 provides amechanism to specify when a specified portion of the video shall bestarted (t1) and when it shall be ended (t2), hence the length of theportion specified by the tag is t2−t1. Should t2 not be provided asshown in FIG. 2A, by default, t2 will be assigned to be the beginning ofthe next tag.

A name place 208 is provided to name the tag. For example, the authordesires to name the tag as “Must see first”, when a viewer sees a tablewith many tags, the viewer may activate the tag labeled as “Must seefirst”. When a button or “Add new mark” 210 is activated, the tag isadded to a window 212 for displaying the table.

The display 200 provides a timeline 214 to allow the author to slide thestart of the video to a specified time. However, it is practicallydifficult to know exactly when a specified portion shall be started orended. A pair 216 of manual forward and backward is provided to allowthe author to specify a frame to start or end, so as to get a fairlyexact time for the start and/or end time of the tag. Depending onimplementation, the pair 216 of manual forward and backward may beimplemented at a predefined time period (e.g., 0.01 second) or based ona video frame.

Referring now to FIG. 2B, as an example, the display 200 shows that apiano lesson video is being segmented or tagged. The source video isoriginally available at YouTube. Once the link to the source video iscopied and pasted into the entry 202 in the display 200. An underlyingmodule of the display 200 is caused to retrieve the source video fromYouTube upon “Load video” 220 being activated. As the link is directlyrelated to the video, an advertisement preview that is often played onthe YouTube video player prior to playing back the actual video wouldnot come to the authoring tool or the display 200. In order words, anadvertisement video (allowed to be skipped after a few seconds) thatwould be shown first when the same video is viewed on the YouTubewebsite will not be delivered into the authoring tool or the display200.

A table 222 shows that there are five tags made to the piano lessonvideo. The five tags in a table 222 are respectively labeled as:

-   -   Righthand    -   Lefthand    -   Righthand Again    -   Both Hands    -   Lefthand Again        As the name suggests, each of the tags defines a portion of the        piano lesson based on the play of a hand or both hands. The        tagging file can be named specifically at entry 221, and saved        to a predefined location. In one embodiment, the tagging file is        saved on the server 110 of FIG. 1A and associated with a user        account. As will be further discussed below, a final saved        tagging file can be updated, modified by others or shared with        others.

According to one embodiment, a mechanism labeled “embed” 226 is providedto allow the user to share the published video with another user. Themechanism 226 provides a link to a playback file. In one embodiment, theplayback file is an HTML file. When the link is copied to a webpage, thedisplay 200 will be embedded in the webpage, allowing anyone accessingthe webpage to play back the published video. Similarly, the link may bealso embedded in a webpage for publication, a modified version thereofmay be emailed or texted to another user or published on a whitewall ina social network. Once the link is received and activated, the viewer isshown the display 200 of FIG. 2B and allowed to view any of the portionsin the piano lesson by one of the tags or in the order of the tagsstructured in the table 222 by activating “start”.

In one embodiment, the display 200 is designed to provide an interface228 to allow a user (e.g., a viewer) to modify the tags in the table222. As shown in FIG. 2B, the interface 228 includes three buttons,“edit”, “Save” and “Remove”. As the names suggest, together with “Addnew mark” 210, one or more of the tags in the table 222 can be removedand renamed, and further new tags can be added therein. By saving thetagging file at the entry 221, the user now has his own tagging file forthe same source video.

According to one embodiment, each of the tags in the table 222 can haveone or more subtags. The starting and ending times for each of thesubtags are preferably limited within the starting and ending times ofthe (parent) tag although it is possible to have a subtag without suchrestriction. In addition, each of the tags or subtags may be defined tobe overlapping if needed. FIG. 2C shows an example of a table 230 havinga tag 232 with a subtag 234 that has its own subtag, hence subsubtag236.

Referring now to FIG. 2D, it shows underlying relationships of therespective tags in a table 240 with corresponding segments in a video orvideos. As an example, the table 240 shows a hierarchal relationship ofthe video segments (tags). It is assumed that a first video is retrievedand segmented with a first tag 242 to define a (first) video portionstarting at t1 and ending at t2. As a result, when the first tag 242 isactivated, the first video portion is started right at t1 and ended att2. It is now deemed necessary to further segment the first videoportion defined by the first tag 242 with a subtag 244. The subtag 244defines a smaller video portion within the first video portion. From aviewer perspective, the viewer can skip some of the first video portionand view directly the smaller video portion to get to his interestedportion. Should there be a need to further segment the smaller videoportion, a subtag 246 of the subtag 244 can be created to define evensmaller video portion within the already smaller video portion definedby the subtag 244. In theory, there is no limit as so how many levels ofthe hierarchy can be defined. Also in theory, the subtag 246 may definea portion of a video going beyond the time limit t2−t1.

One of the important features, advantages and objectives in the presentinvention is the seamless concatenation of several source videos. Forexample, an author needs several video sources to generate an extractedvideo. Instead of getting all these video sources and editing each toproduce the extracted video, the author can use one embodiment of thepresent invention to create the extracted video without interfering withthe video data of each of the source videos. The table 240 shows thatthe second tag 248 is related to another (second) source video. In otherwords, the first tag 242 is defining the first video portion in thefirst source video and the second tag 248 is now defining a videoportion in the second source video. When the table 240 is activated fromthe start, the first video portion of the first source video is playedback and the video portion of the second source video is seamlesslyswitched on right after the subtag 246 is finished. When a viewerselects a “play” button or a very first tag to start a published video,the tags in the table 240 are sequentially and automatically activated.When a video portion is being played back, the corresponding tag ishighlighted to demonstrate that the particular tag is being active.

As described above, a tag defines a video portion of a source video.According to one embodiment, when the table 240 includes a plurality oftags, the order of the tags can be reordered or shuffled in an orderdefined by a user. FIG. 2E shows that a table 242 has the same tags butreordered. A sequential playback per the table 242 would createdifferent impression on the viewers than that per the table 240. Ifneeded, one or more video segments may be repeated in a specific orderor looped for a specific number of times as shown as a sign 245. In oneembodiment, the tag may be implemented in a different appearance thanother non-looped tags, for example, with a number superimposed on thetag, where the number indicates the remaining times the particular videosegment has to be played or viewed.

FIG. 2F shows a list of tags 250 one of which 252 is different fromothers. In one embodiment, the special tag 252 is grayed in appearance.Depending on implementation, the grayed tag 252 may be added by anauthor or a service provider. For example, a child is instructed to viewa video published by his parents. To avoid the child being confused orto see some improper content in the video, the source video is segmentedto hide a video portion defined by the tag 252. When the published videois played back, the segments 254 and 256 are sequentially shown, thevideo is paused at the segment 252. Depending on implementation, thepause may be designed to require a passcode to activate the segment 252or skip the segment 252 after a predefined period so that the child onlysees what his parents consent with.

According to another embodiment, the tag 252 is inserted by a serviceprovider to invite a viewer to view the content defined by the tag 252upon a condition being met. For example, a movie distributor allows aviewer to view a portion of a new release but block most of the releaseby the tag. The portion of the release does not have to be the beginningpart of the release. The rest of the release may be protected by one ormore tags defining collectively the rest of the release. When the viewerviews the portion that ends at one of the tags (e.g., the tag 256), theviewer is required to follow up with a requirement embedded in the tag252 before the tag 252 can be activated to show the correspondingportion of the release. Depending on implementation, the requirement maybe a payment to the movie distributor, a promotion code, or a view of anadvertisement. This example illustrates the flexibility of using tags tocontrol the access to certain portions of a source video.

According to yet another embodiment, the tag 252 is inserted by aservice provider to invite a viewer to view the content defined by thetag 252 upon a condition being met. For example, the viewer is requiredto view an advertisement directed by the tag 252 before the subsequenttags are activated or allowed to be selected. After the viewer views theadvertisement for a predefined time (e.g., 10 seconds), the tag 252 isactivated to allow the playback to continue to the next tag 258.

To facilitate the description of the present invention, the tag 252 isdescribed as grayed. Those skilled in the art may understand that such atag 252 may not be really in gray and can be highlighted in any way thatmakes a sense to a viewer. When a tag is grayed, it means that the tagcan be activated upon a condition being met. One of the purposes of sucha tag is to get attention from the viewer thereto before being skipped.In one embodiment, such a “grayed” tag is in a color different from thecolor of other tags. In another embodiment, such a “grayed” tag islabeled differently.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, it shows a flowchart or process 300 ofcreating a tagging file or a published video according to one embodimentof the present invention. Depending on implementation, the process 300may be implemented in software or a combination of software andhardware. The process 300 may be better understood in conjunction withprevious figures and is initiated when an application moduleimplementing the embodiment is activated or an authoring tool providedby a server (e.g., a server 110 of FIG. 1A) is loaded in a browser. Inthe following description of the process 300, it is assumed that a useruses a browser to access his account, from which the user is permittedto author a source video for a purpose (e.g., archival, sharing,distribution or publication).

A user is instructed to provide the location information of the sourcevideo at 302. An example of the location information may be a URL, afolder or repository in a local or remote computing device. The process300 is started when the source video is located and retrieved into theauthoring tool as shown in FIG. 2A. At 304, the user defines where tostart and end a segment. Essentially, a starting time and an ending timein a video timeline define a portion or segment of the source video.According to one embodiment, the ending time is set by default theending time of the entire source video. When a next tag is defined, theending of the previous tag is set to be the starting time of the nexttag. This approach ensures that no video portion would be left undefinedin a tag. In another embodiment, the ending time for a segment ismanually determined by the user, in which case there is a chance thatsome of the video portion may be skipped or repeated (looped). FIG. 2Ashows a corresponding embodiment in which the display 200 does notrequire the user to specify an ending time. Nevertheless, at 306, a tagis created in a table that includes a starting time and an ending timefor a portion being identified. Initially, the table is empty andgradually populated with tags and subtags, if there are any, as theprocess 300 goes through 306 repeatedly. Not specifically shown in FIG.3A, the tag may be made as a conditional tag in one embodiment. Asanother representation of a grayed tag, a conditional tag preferablyshown differently from other tags needs to be activated differently fromother tags.

The process 300 continues to 308, where the process 300 determines ifthe user needs to create more tags (or subtags) of an already createdtag for the source video or a new tag for another video(s) at 309. Asdescribed above, tags are utilized to seamlessly switch from one portionin one source video to another portion in another source video. Shouldthe user determine to have another tag for a portion in another video,the process 300 goes to 302 to load a different video. Should the userdetermine to have another tag for a portion in the same source video,the process 300 goes to 304 for the user to define a new tag for adifferent portion of the source video being already loaded.

When the user is done with creating all the tags, the process 300 goeson to 310, where the table including all the tags is finished.Initially, the tags may be in an order as they were created. At 312, theuser determines if the order is what he wants. Operationally, the orderessentially allows all the video portions defined by the tags aresequentially played back per the order of the tags. As shown in FIG. 2B,all the tags are sequentially activated if a viewer simply starts thepublished video from start, where a tag 236 is highlighted when thecorresponding video portion is being played back.

It is now assumed that the user needs to manage the tags according to apurpose by the user. The process 300 goes to 313, where the userrearranges the tags or adds new tags. As shown in FIG. 2E, the order ofthe tags is changed along with any subtags if they exist. According toone embodiment, the user desires to make one of the tags or manually adda new tag as a conditional tag. A condition has to be entered per thetag. Depending on implementation, there are different ways to accept aninput to check if the condition is met before activating a conditionaltag.

According to one embodiment, a webpage (e.g., implemented in HTML) islaunched to require an input from a viewer. Upon receiving the input,the webpage coupled to the server 110 of FIG. 1A transports the input tothe server for verification. Should the input be acceptable, the taggingfile is updated to unlock the conditional tag so that the video portiondefined by the conditional tag is played back as normal. Should theinput not be acceptable, the video portion defined by the conditionaltag is skipped as if the source video does not have that portion,consequently the viewer does not see it. The application of theconditional tag is useful when a publisher desires to get something froma viewer in return for providing the published video for viewing.

According to another embodiment, the conditional tag is modified toinclude a website with necessary information to promote a product or aservice. When playing back, the tag causes a website automaticallyfilled necessary information to show the promoted product or service sothat the viewer may enter a transaction with the website regarding thepromoted product or service.

According to yet another embodiment, the conditional tag requires acondition to be fulfilled by a viewer. Without inherent limitations, thecondition may be designed to pop up a window or a separate website toreceive an input from the viewer or show a promotion video. Thoseskilled may think of various ways to fulfill a condition for theconditional tag to be turned off, skipped, removed, modified, updated ordeactivated, without departing from the principle of the presentinvention.

Returning now back to FIG. 3A, the user is done with the management ofthe tags at 312. The process 300 now goes to 314 to save a tagging file.FIG. 3B shows a portion of an exemplary tagging file according to oneembodiment. Those skilled in the art shall understand that there aredifferent ways to implement such a tagging file without departing fromthe principle of the present invention.

FIG. 3C shows a flowchart or process 340 of playing back a publishedvideo according to one embodiment of the present invention. Depending onimplementation, the process 340 may be implemented in software or acombination of software and hardware. The process 340 may be betterunderstood in conjunction with previous figures and is initiated when aplayer of the published video is loaded.

According to one embodiment, when a tagging file is created in anauthoring tool in a display shown in a browser, a link representing thedisplay, as shown in FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B, can be transported in email, awebpage, an instant message, or other electronic means, to another useror a viewer. When received, the viewer activates the link, a computingdevice being used by the viewer retrieves data representing the display.As a result, the computing device shows the published video, allowingthe viewer to start the tags sequentially or select any one of the tagsto immediately view a corresponding video portion. Depending on therelationship between the viewer with the service provider, the viewermay only view the video or be provided with the privilege to modify thetags and create a tagging file as if the user has just published avideo.

In any case, at 342, it is assumed that such a display is successfullyloaded and displayed. A tagging file is then loaded at 344 to allow theviewer to play back the published video. The user may choose a tag tostart the playback or simply start the playback sequentially per theorder of tags. At 346, each tag in turn is examined to determine if itis conditional. When the tag is a regular one (unconditional), theprocess 340 goes on to 348 to determine the source of the video. Thevideo can be the same one already loaded at 344 or a new one identifiedby a URL in the tag. At 350, the video portion defined by the tag isplayed back. At 352, a next tag is met. The process 340 now goes back to346 to determine if the tag is conditional or not.

Referring now to 346, it is assumed that the tag is conditional, thatmeans a user has to do something to satisfy a condition embedded in thetag. The process 340 now goes to 354 to determine whether the conditionis met or not. According to one embodiment, the condition for the tag isto request the viewer to watch a commercial video for 5 seconds. The tagis turned into unconditional after the commercial video is watched formore than 5 seconds so that the process 340 now goes to 348 which hasbeen explained above. According to another embodiment, the condition forthe tag is to request a password, the tag is turned into unconditionalafter a correct password is entered.

According to still another embodiment, the condition for the tag is toperform a process with a designated server, where the designated serveris identified by a URL embedded in the tag. When the conditional tag isactivated, the computing device is caused to establish a connection withthe server so that some data exchanges take place. In one case, anelectronic payment by credit card or mobile payment is entered on thecomputing device, the data representing the amount or paymentinformation is received at the server. The server acknowledges thepayment by sending back a code that cause the computing device to turnthe condition tag into unconditional so that the process 340 now goes to348 which has been explained above. In any case, if the condition forthe conditional tag is not met at 354, the process 340 ends or skipssome tags to lead the viewer to another tag.

FIG. 2B or FIG. 2C shows that each of the tags is labeled so that aviewer knows which tag is to be selected to view the corresponding videoportion. FIG. 3D shows some examples of the tags that may be furtheranimated, graphed or overlaid on a message, a graph or a symbol. Tag 1shows that a time line may be implemented thereon besides a wordinglabel so that a viewer is aware of the progress of playing back thecorresponding video portion. Tag 2 shows another implementation ofshowing a progress bar on top of a tag, which is only shown when the taghas been selected and started. Tag 2 may be useful when the videoportion is from a streaming source so that the viewer may see how muchvideo data has been downloaded ahead of the current playing time, wherethe playing time is defined to be the time that the tag or thecorresponding video has been played back. Tag 3 is shown that a tag isbeing overlaid upon a graph. As the video portion is being played back,the progress indicator moves around the graph to indicate which sign orsymbol is being indicated. In general, the progress indicator moveslinearly. As will be further described below, there are certain cases,the indicator may be caused to move nonlinearly for a selected portionof the segmented video to appear synchronized with certain marks orsymbols that may be placed unevenly between each other.

According to one embodiment, each tag may be shared with others orpublished on a website. For example, there is a long video covering anevent. A user hopes to share a specific portion of the video with arelevant contact. While segmenting the video with a number of tags, atag defining the specific portion may be labeled as “you must see” orsomething that may draw attention from the contact, the tag itself maybe shared with the contact, in which case the contact will view thespecific portion of the video upon activating the tag.

Referring now to FIG. 3E, it illustrates how a tag may be publishedalone. It is assumed that a user has authored a table of tags 260 for aperformance video that lasts over 2 hour 15 minutes. Each of the tags inthe table 260 has been properly labeled. The author desires to share oneperformance named “Johnny performance” with his contact. Sharing theentire video that lasts 2 hour 15 minutes with the contact may not drawproper attention from the contact. Instead the user publishes the tagnamed “Johnny performance”. As a result, the data for the specificportion of the video lasts only 3.5 minutes.

According to one embodiment, once the user decides to publish a tag(i.e., a specific portion of the video), a server (e.g., the server 110of FIG. 1A) is configured to receive the starting time and the ending(or a period thereof) of the video, and generate a file that has a URLto the source video along with the specific time duration. A link to thefile may be embedded in a page shared with the contact. Alternatively alink to a webpage (implemented in HTML) may be transported to thecontact via email or instant messaging. Upon activating the link, thecontact can see the specific portion of the view that is mostinteresting to him. FIG. 3E also shows two exemplary views the contactmay immediately see when activating the link. One view 368 shows a videoplayer starting right at the stating time of the specific portion of thevideo defined by the tag named “Johnny performance” in which case aviewer sees only the specific portion of the video. Another view 370shows a video player starting right at the starting time of the specificportion of the video defined by the tag named “Johnny performance” butindicating on a progress bar that it is only a portion of an entirevideo. The view 370 gives an option to the viewer that if needed he maymove the progress bar to start from the beginning of the video.

The server 110 of FIG. 1A is configured to manage a plurality ofaccounts, each for a registered user. Over the times, users may havecreated many published videos. To facilitate a user to look for videoswith similar subjects, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention, various tags created by the users are indexed in a databaseunless a published video is made available to only a group of designatedviewers. It is assumed that an author puts no restrictions on apublished video. In operation, the server 110 is configured to extractkeywords or symbols from the tags and index them in the database whenthe created or modified tagging files are saved on the server 110. Whena user is looking for videos related to his interest, he may input oneor two keywords or a search string including an operator on thekeywords. Upon receiving the search string, the server 110 is configuredto produce a table including tags, each defining a video portion relatedto the subject he is looking for.

FIG. 3F shows an exemplary generated table 372 based on a search string“cooking AND Asian”, indicating a user is looking for videos related toAsian cooking. The table 372 shows specifically that there are at leasttwo video portions (from one or two source videos) referenced by twotags 373 and 375 that include the matched search strings. Depending onthe implementation, the original authors may classify the tags as asubject of Asian cooking or the server is configured to automaticallyclassify the tags. Since it is a table being requested by a user, in oneembodiment, the server is designed to insert one or more conditionaltags in the table. As shown in FIG. 3F, there are two tags 374 and 376related to the subject of cooking for advertising cooking ware andfoods.

Referring to FIG. 3G, it shows a flowchart or process 380 of generatinga table based on a search string from a user. Depending onimplementation, the process 380 may be implemented in software or acombination of software and hardware. The process 380 may be betterunderstood in conjunction with previous figures and is initiated whenthe user requests to search all relevant video portions pertaining to asubject expressed by the user.

At 382, the server determines whether a search string is received fromthe user. Similar to the search engine provided by Google(www.google.com), there are no limitations as to how a search string maybe formed. A search string may be one or more signs, symbols, or words.A search string may also include one or more logic operators. At 384, itis assumed that such a search string is received, the server is designedto conduct a search against a database per the search string. Thedatabase is constantly populated whenever a registered user saves atagging file. It should be noted that the search may be conducted basedon a subject, not necessarily only on a match of keywords. At 386,relevant tags substantially representing the search string are located.A table of the tags is generated by the server. Depending onimplementation, such a table may be transported to the user directly,but in general, the table is modified at 388 to include some conditionaltags or tags related to advertisements (commercial tags). In oneembodiment, the commercial tags may be auctioned among advertisersregarding their orders, positions and appearance in the generated table.

At 390, the table (e.g., the generated table 372 of FIG. 3F) is returnedto the user in responding to the search string provided by the user. Inone embodiment, a display similar to the display 200 of FIG. 2B isprovided with the received tags. The user may select any one of the tagsto video the corresponding video portion. Sometimes, one of theadvertisement tags may be automatically activated initially andcontinuously shown till the user selects one of the subject tags. Ingeneral, the automatically activated commercial tag would be the mostexpensive to the advertisers compared with other commercial tags in thetable.

In some cases, the user may refine his search when he sees a table withmany tags. He may add an additional sign, symbol or word to the originalsearch string. Thus the process 380 goes back to 380 to generate anupdated table. The user shall receive an updated table, presumably withfew tags. It should be noted that the process 380 does not interferewith the video data of the corresponding video portions, all is beingdown with the tags respectively defining the video portions. The videodata would only be loaded per a tag when the user selects the tag.

Referring now to FIG. 4A, it shows a display 400 including a window 402to show a published video and a table 404 in which tags are graphicallyoverlaid on a music score (or sheet music) 404. Differently from thedisplay in FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B, the display 400 presents tags resembledin music notes. A corresponding progress of a defined video issubstantially synchronized with the music notes in display 402. As anexample, each tag is created for a section of music. There are four tags405, 406, 407 and 408 in the music score 404, each representing one typeof playing. In other words, any one of the tags 405, 406, 407 and 408 inthe music score 404 may be selected and a corresponding video portion isplayed. A progress bar presented under each of the tags 405, 406, 407and 408 is provided to show the corresponding progress. As the pianovideo is being played back, a corresponding sign (e.g., a dot 410) ishighlighted and moved along in synchronization with the note beingplayed. As a result, a viewer sees which note is being played.

In one embodiment, one or more subtags or conditional tags are provided,two of them 412 are shown in FIG. 4A. These tags are highlighted tonotify a user or viewer that there is additional information that may beviewed if clicked. In one embodiment, it is a subtag defining asupplemental video portion providing additional details of playing asection of notes, where the supplemental video portion may be from thecurrent source video or another source video (with a different URL). Byclicking the subtag, the viewer can see the details relating to the playof the notes while pausing the video portion being played back. As soonas the supplemental video portion is done, the original video portion isresumed automatically or manually.

In another embodiment, the subtag is conditional. The viewer is requiredto fulfill a condition before the subtag is set to go away or skipped.From a business perspective, the conditional subtag may be used toadvertise a product or a service related to what is being watched (e.g.,piano or online education).

As another example, FIG. 4B shows a guitar performance or lesson video.The display 410 includes a window 412 to show the published guitar videoand a table 414 (score) in which tags are graphically organized andrespectively overlaid in accordance with seven chords, where one tagcorresponds to two chords. The display 410 presents graphicallyorganized tags that represent corresponding chords. As an example, eachtag is created as a chord. In other words, as the guitar video is playedback, a corresponding chord is highlighted in the table 414 and a timeor progress bar is presented under a corresponding chord to show theprogress of playback of the chord. Likewise, any of the chords in thetable 414 is selected, a corresponding video portion is activated andplayed back. It is believed that those skilled in the art can nowappreciate that one of the advantages, benefits and objectives in thepresent invention is to provide a two-way or mutual visual mappingbetween a video and a graphic representation. The table 414 also showsan introduction part and a review part, each of the parts (correspondingto a tag) is formed to show a specific portion of the source video or acollection of selected video portions for a viewer to have a differentview of the source video.

Referring now to FIG. 4C, it shows an exemplary table 420 at creation, ashuffled table 422 and an unshuffled (restored) table 424. The table 420is created based on a source video represented in a video data streaming426. The table 420 includes N tags, each corresponding to a videoportion defined by a starting time t and a duration T, for example, avideo portion corresponding to Tag 2 starts at time t2 and lasts for aperiod of T2. The created table 420 is then reordered or shuffled tocreate a shuffled table 422. In other words, the tags in the table 420are reordered in a way desired by the author thereof. If a viewerdesires, the table 422 may be reordered again. According to oneembodiment, an interface is provided to allow a viewer to restore thetable 422 to its default so that a viewer may always see a publishedvideo in an order arranged by the original author. According to anotherembodiment, an interface is provided to allow a viewer to restore thetable 422 based on the starting times of the tags so that a viewer maysee a published video sequentially in time-wise order.

FIG. 4D shows an abstract illustration of amplification in time. Asdescribed above, the progress of playing back a video portion shown in aprogress or time bar is linearly synchronized with the advancement ofthe video data. When graphically represented, for example in FIG. 4A,the relationship between the notes in the music score and the videoprogress is linear (a straight line 430 shown in FIG. 4D). In musicthere are places where the music slows down (e.g., ritardando). So thetime duration (e.g., t1 . . . t2) needs to be mapped non-linearly on theline. In this case the line becomes a curve 432 in edit mode. The regionof that particular sub-span gets mapped on a longer path. Visually thedot 410 of FIG. 4A will show that the tracking of the music notesadvances slower in certain regions of the graphically represented tag.The reverse would be the case when the music accelerates within aregion, in which case the dot 410 of FIG. 4A shows that the tracking ofthe music notes advances faster in the region of the graphicallyrepresented tag.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown a functional block diagram of aserver machine or server 500 in which a server module 502 resides in amemory space 503 and is executable by one or more processors 501. Theserver 500 may correspond to the server 110 of FIG. 1A and representsone or more server machines configured to perform the server functionsdesired in one embodiment of the present invention. In one example, theserver 200 is to provide administration of users who have registeredwith and may have created the tagging files for their published videos.In another example, the server 500 is utilized by a service provider tomanage conditions for those tags that require some interactions from theuser. In still another example, the server 500 is provided as a portalfor users to access published videos. In yet another example, the server500 is configured to provide downloadable application or program thatusers can download into their own computing devices (e.g., mobilecomputers) from which they can create tags for a published video andshare it with others via a social network or other electronic means.

Depending on implementation, this server 500 may be a single server or acluster of two or more servers. One embodiment of the present inventionis implemented as cloud computing in which there are multiple computersor servers deployed to serve as many businesses or individuals aspractically possible. For illustration purpose, a representative of asingle server 500 is shown and may correspond to the server 110 in FIG.1A. In one embodiment, the process 300 of FIG. 3A or the process 340 ofFIG. 3C works independently but can be enhanced when working with theserver 500.

The server device 500 includes a network interface 504 to facilitate thecommunication between the server device 500 and other devices on anetwork, and a storage space 505. The server module 502 is an executableversion of one embodiment of the present invention and delivers, whenexecuted, some or all of the features/results contemplated in thepresent invention. According to one embodiment, the server module 502comprises an administration interface 506, an account manager 508, aclient manager 510, a security manager 512, a conditions manager 514,and a data processing module 516.

Administration Interface 506:

As the name suggests, the administration interface 506 facilitates asystem administrator to register a user (e.g., an individual or abusiness entity) and grant certain controlled services to the registeredusers. Examples of the controlled services may include version controlson modified tags by a viewer, and distribution of a published video withor without embedded advertisements via one or more tags. In oneembodiment, the administration interface 506 allows a service providerto manage all subscribing accounts and determine what and how much tocharge for a service. In one example, businesses or users can createtheir accounts for a fee. Users can search for businesses just as theywould search for a friend. Businesses that have paid will have theircertificates of authenticity and be at the top of the search engine.Users will want to search for the businesses to download their publishedvideos (such as restaurant menus or device instruction books). Abusiness can create their advertisements within a published video. Userswill want to find businesses in order to access their published videos(e.g., cooking illustration, how-to guides, vacations, SAT sample testsfor students, homework or home-study illustrations from teachers, dentalprocedures, medical operation basic details, etc.). Users may be giventhe option to follow a certain business to help increase popularity ofthe business. The popularity of a business can be displayed by some sortof indicator such as the number of followers or subscribers.

Account Manager 508:

The account manager 508 is provided to allow a user to automaticallyregister himself with the server 500 for a service being offered by theserver 500 or register with the module running on his computing device.In one embodiment, a user causes the module to be executed for the firsttime on his device (e.g., iPhone), the module is designed to request theuser to enter certain information (e.g., a user name, a true name, etc.)before allowing the user to author a source video or view a publishedvideo. After the registration, a profile of the user is created and thentransported to the server 500. Although the module provides basicfunctions to create a tagging file for a published video, there areadditional features that are only provided to a paid user. As indicatedabove, after a fee payment, a subscribing user may be granted to createa published video that can be further modified by another viamodification of some of the tags, as a result, the published video maybe enhanced to be more illustrative, and/or distributed with certaincontrol without advertisement. According to one embodiment, the accountmanager 508 indicates to the server 500 that a user who chose not to payfor a service being offered by the server 500 may view certainadvertisements in a published video in accordance with a profile of theuser, where the advertisements are embedded in a table of tags for thepublished video. Depending on implementation, the advertisements may becorrelated at a level with the label content of the tags and/or theprofile of a viewer or the author. Essentially, the account manager 508is configured to maintain all registered users (paid or free users).

Client Manager 510

The client manager 510 is provided to manage versions of the applicationprovided to the registered users. In one embodiment, there are twoversions, one for paying users and the other for non-paying users. Thepaid version is designed to have more functions than that of the freeversion. For example, a free version of the module (i.e., a clientmodule) allows a user to create a video of certain length (e.g.,5-minute and one audio track) while a paid version of the module allowsa user to create a booklet of any length. Working with the accountmanager 508, the client manager 510 is configured to release a properversion of the module to a registered user.

Security Manage 512

This module is configured to provide security when needed. The storeddata for each of the subscribing businesses or users may be encrypted,thus only authorized user may access the secured data. In somesituations, an encryption key to a secured tagging file is securelymaintained and may be retrieved by a system administrator to access thesecured tagging file in case there is a need. In one embodiment, thesecurity manage 512 is configured to initiate a secure communicationsession with a client machine when it detects that a registered user ora viewer is authorized to access a tagging file remotely over an opennetwork.

Conditions Manager 514

The conditions manager 514 is a tool provided to control one or moreconditional tags in a table of tags for a published video. When a tableof tags is created and saved on the server, the conditions manager 514is configured to register the table. When a viewer desires to access thetable of tags to view a published video, the conditions manager 514 isconfigured to turn one of the tags or insert one tag in the table as aconditional tag so that the viewer has to respond to the conditional tagbefore being allowed to continue the published video. In one embodiment,the criteria to link the conditional tag may be based on a profileprovided by the user or a profile retrieved from a social network wherethe user shares his published video with his contacts or a viewerdesires to view the published video.

Data Processing 516:

This module is configured to perform data operations to determine aninterest of users. According to one embodiment, certain social networkpages (e.g., facebook) owned by a user are crawled to determine aninterest of a user so that the conditions manager 514 can determine anappropriate advertisement for the user. In operation, data obtained fromthe user (e.g., his profile or data of his personal pages) are analyzedto determine what interest the user may have. When there is a call fromthe account manager 508 that one or more advertisements shall be servedto the user, either via a conditional tag to be inserted in the table oftags in his account at the server 500 or pushed to the device runningthe client module to author a video or view a published shared byothers, the data processing 516 sends its finding to the conditionsmanager 514 to determine the advertisements. In addition, this module isdesigned to perform a search based on a search string received from auser and generate a table of tags pertaining to the search string.

In general, the server 500 is configured to provide services atdifferent levels to registered users. In one embodiment, the server 500allows a user to organize all published videos he has maintained via thecorresponding tagging files. These corresponding tagging files may bethose originally created by the user, those shared by contacts in agroup and those downloaded from the Internet. These correspondingtagging files may be categorized by the user from a computing devicecoupled to the server 500. In one embodiment, the server 500 isconfigured to execute a server application substantially similar to theapplication module 126 of FIG. 1B. A registered user is able to create,view or modify a booklet remotely from a computing device notnecessarily installed with the application module 126 of FIG. 1B.

The invention is preferably implemented in software, but can also beimplemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software. Theinvention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computerreadable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage devicethat can store data which can thereafter be read by a computer system.Examples of the computer readable medium include read-only memory,random-access memory, CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tape, optical data storagedevices, and carrier waves. The computer readable medium can also bedistributed over network-coupled computer systems so that the computerreadable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

The present invention has been described in sufficient details with acertain degree of particularity. It is understood to those skilled inthe art that the present disclosure of embodiments has been made by wayof examples only and that numerous changes in the arrangement andcombination of parts may be resorted without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention as claimed. For example, the descriptionherein is mainly provided based on video, those skilled in the art shallunderstand that the description is equally applicable to audioapplications. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is definedby the appended claims rather than the foregoing description ofembodiments.

I claim:
 1. A method for an instructional video, the method comprising:accessing a source video from a remote location, the remote locationbeing a website or a storage device designated to host a plurality ofvideos; displaying a part of the source video on a display of acomputing device being used by a user; creating by the user a tag fileincluding a uniform resource locator (URL) to the source video and aplurality of tags, at least one of the tags being defined by the user tocorrespond to a video portion of the source video to be associated withone or more music notes in a music representation, wherein the videoportion is played back to show how the one or more music notes areplayed whenever an area containing the one or more music notes in themusic representation is activated, the tag file is maintained remotelywith respect to the source video and video data representing the sourcevideo is never modified while video portions in the source video aresegmented via the tag file to define pieces of the music representation,each containing the one or more notes; displaying a tracking bar in themusic representation to synchronize a progress of Playing back acorresponding video portion with the one or more notes in the musicrepresentation; displaying further an indicator to indicate which notesin the music representation are being played in the corresponding videoportion, wherein the indicator moves nonlinearly to appear synchronizedwith some of the notes placed unevenly between each other; and whereinthe tag file is shared from the user without the video data enclosed toallow other users to view the source video segmented with the tags inthe music representation.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1, whereinthe tags are visible in the music representation to the user or theother users.
 3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the tags areinvisible in the music representation to the user or the other users. 4.The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the tags is allowed tohave one or more subtags further defining a video portion within theeach of the tags.
 5. A method for an instructional video, the methodcomprising: displaying on a computing device a music representation whenthe music representation is activated locally by a user in the computingdevice, the music representation including a plurality of tags, each ofthe tags including a uniform resource locator (URL) addressing to avideo portion being associated with one or more notes in the musicrepresentation, the video portion being part of a source video locatedremotely with respect to the computing device; loading from a remotelocation video data only representing the video portion without loadingentire data representing the source video, when the one or more notes inthe music representation are activated; synchronizing the video portionwith the one or more notes in the music representation to show how theone or more notes are played; displaying an indicator to indicate whichof the one or more notes in the music representation are being played,wherein the indicator moves nonlinearly to appear being synchronizedwith some of the one or more notes placed unevenly between each other inthe music representation; and sharing directly from the user withanother user the music representation without including any video dataof corresponding video portions respectively associating with one ormore notes in the music representation, wherein any of the correspondingvideo portions are played back when the another user activates one ofthe tags in the music representation.
 6. The method as recited in claim5, wherein the music representation is shared electronically via email,an electronic message or published in a webpage.
 7. The method asrecited in claim 5, wherein the music representation is a music scoreand the one or more notes are music notes in the music score.
 8. Themethod as recited in claim 5, wherein the music representation isrelated to a set of chords in an instrument, each of the tagscorresponds to a chord, a corresponding chord is highlighted in themusic representation, a time or tracking bar is presented under acorresponding chord to show a progress of playback of the chord as acorresponding video of playing the instrument is played back.
 9. Themethod as recited in claim 5, wherein said loading video data onlyrepresenting the video portion comprises: looking up a universalresource locator (URL) in the music representation; and streaming in thevideo data only representing the video portion in accordance with theURL.
 10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein said synchronizingthe video portion with the one or more notes in the music representationfurther comprising: leaping to a point in the video portion to show howthe one or more notes are played when the user clicks an area containingthe one or more notes in the music representation.
 11. The method asrecited in claim 9, wherein the tags are visible in the musicrepresentation to the user or the other users.
 12. The method as recitedin claim 11 further comprising: displaying a tracking bar to synchronizea progress of playing back a corresponding video portion with one ormore notes in the music representation.
 13. The method as recited inclaim 12, wherein the tags are invisible in the music representation tothe user or the other users.
 14. The method as recited in claim 5,wherein the indicator moves nonlinearly in synchronizing with beats inthe music representation.
 15. The method as recited in claim 5, whereineach of the tags is allowed to have one or more subtags further defininga video portion within the each of the tags, the method furthercomprises activating automatically the one or more subtags when the oneof the tags is being activated.
 16. A system for an interactive video,the system comprising: a server configured to manage at least an accountfor a user, the account including a profile of the user and a filerepresenting a music representation including a plurality of tags, eachof the tags including a uniform resource locator (URL) and correspondingto a video portion being part of a source video referred by the URL,each of the tags being associated with one or more notes in the musicrepresentation, wherein the file is sharable directly from the user to acomputing device, and the file does not include any part of the sourcevideo, and wherein the computing device performs operations of: loadingvideo data only representing a corresponding video portion withoutloading entire data representing the source video, when one of the tagsis activated; activating one of the tags to show how the one or morenotes are played in conjunction with the corresponding video portion;displaying an indicator to indicate which of the one or more notes inthe music representation are being played, wherein the indicator movesnonlinearly to appear synchronized with some of the one or more notesplaced unevenly between each other in the music representation.
 17. Thesystem as recited in claim 16, wherein the indicator moves nonlinearlyin synchronizing with beats in the music representation.
 18. The systemas recited in claim 16, wherein the music representation is sharedelectronically via email, an electronic message or published in awebpage.
 19. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the musicrepresentation is a music score and the one or more notes are musicnotes in the music score.